Ok, my apologies - it can generate list based on available roms I didn't study manual because it's italian

As for list I notice this. It's generally the same list. After closer look I noticed that FEEL and MAMEWAH have the same two small problems:1. Both programs list devices with roms and support roms like qsound, nmk004 etc.2. Both programs does not see chd only sets for example Taito GNET games.

I'll try to answer to some questions I've read around (trying to avoid the most pointless ones ):

FEEL has started development in 2011 as 2 friends' project (me and a friend of mine, antogeno, being involved in building/restoring an arcade MAME cabinet, one for each), in replacement to MameWah, which was very good to us at the beginning, though missing some options we needed.

So we started developing *our own* FE as a hobby in our spare time, using .net 2.0 and DirectX managed (FEEL 1.2.x, still available for download, is based on it), which - we thought - was the best choice for running on XP and DX7 on very old hw, without implementing the whole thing in C++ , which would have taken a lot more time (btw, I used to be quite a VB6 fan and still quite I am for *really tiny* things, but come on.. we must evolve sometimes! ).Then after some good work, antogeno left the project and since then (2013) I'm keeping it up on my own (apart from the graphics work, which is helped out by Arcade Italia users, adolfo69 as first).

In these years I then decided to move to .net 3.5 and XNA 3.1 (I intentionally chose outdated versions because of their compatibility and lightness qualities).. a little more requesting in terms of hw, but still very light and very well supported even on very old hw (e.g.: a crappy P4 ATI-Radeon-9xxx-equipped - which I still use in my cabinet - is always my requirement target, and on it FEEL runs like hell .. any test ).

This technology change allowed me to rewrite the whole graphics engine (yep FEEL is not Windows forms app, instead it's developed on a "proprietary" 2D game engine, whence implementing all graphics at quite low level), adding transparencies and transitions and a very better videosnap management thru DirectShow. This has been available from v.1.5 on, and then the FE has been upgraded with a lot of nice layouts made by the good guys at A.I. Then I went on adding support for LED dashboards on SmartASD (from v.1.7) with a quite unique approach (i.e.: no LED configuration required: all is plug-and-play with MAME roms' controls), and finally I've been working on vertical screens management (v.1.8 ).

Okay such a long story.. well to cut it short FEEL (at least, IMHO) is:- capable of running on any PC you'll find useful for something- perfect for 15khz arcade cabinets, bartop and so on (coupled with Win7 or - even better - WinXP)- damn fast (it features the fastest frontend GUI I know), lightweight and effective in managing huge amount of roms and as many emu you would want (the same adolfo69, for instance, is running near 100 different emu on it)- able to run any commandline-driven emulator, even the "worst", at its best conditions- configurable at any level of need- fulfilled of quite interesting features, some designed by me, some coming from A.I. community concepts and hints

Yep, it's not a professional product (so it lacks some useful facilities, such as layout design and others), it's not hyper-wow-C++ , it's not graphics-at-top as hyperspin, it doesn't run on Arduino or RaspPI, but when properly set, it works quite flawlessly, faster (in terms of responsiveness and GUI) and "smarter" than any other FE I've ever tried. Or at least - as always - to me!

Another big lack is probably.. a complete english documentation (and even an updated doc, I must admit). The thing is: I don't have much time, and doc writing is not the most enjoyable thing in the world isn't it?), so I'm trying to fix this with the new website some of you have visited (very "primitive", since it's born just in the last weeks).

In the end, if you want, give FEEL a try, check it out yourselves and let me know your impressions.. or if you don't no prob, to me FEEL development is just a nice hobby so I surely won't argue

Thanks for explanation dr.prodigy and I'm sorry for critics on NET usage. Indeed works very fast (unlike some applications that I have "pleasure" to use at work). Right now I'm starting to install it on my arcade PC (XP x32).

I see.. Well whenever you don't have a connection handy on your target PC, you should always stick to "redist package" versions.. Just google them or search on ms site.They're quite large, but during installation they won't ask for any download

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"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing"

This was full offline installer about 240 Mb but somehow it tries download 10 Mb. Anyway everything works fine without those 10 Mb from package.

I configured Taito Type X with your frontend and it works better with those games than MAMEWAH though Raiden IV after quit minimalizes MAMEWAH and FEEL the same way. This is of course Taito Type X problem.

I noticed that after I quite mame there is white screen for second. Is it my fault ie. wrong configuration, some side effect or intentional behaviour?

None of the 2.. that small flash occurs, I've tried hard to remove it, but it's still there.. it appears for a moment when FEEL regains control. Being sincere, in the end I got accustomed to it, and I don't notice it anymore

In screenshot section the remaining area (from edges of screenshot to edges of area for screenshot) is filled with black colour. Is there any option to make it transparent?

Currently there isn't. It would be trivial to do it (we should just remove the black fill, which I added intentionally), but in my tests this brings to not-so-nice graphics results: all snapshots are black-bordered, that's why I use black to fill the area.

Right now before I switch to vertical layout I have to rotate desktop with irotate or other program, otherwise I get error about EXECUTION ERROR Change resolution failed. It's simply impossible to switch orientation without leaving frontend, rotating desktop and finally go to configuration and manually edit line responsible for layout from let's say [something] to [something]_vertical. Rotating/switch to vertical layout on the fly would be great feature.

I was thinking about another addition - resizing screenshots according to aspect ratio and orientation. Right now every (but I might be mistaken) frontend stretches screenshots to filed area desired by user either keeping screenshot aspect ratio or not. Some games with resolutions like 620x240 or 480x224 looks bad that way. You could imagine how looks screenshot of Blasteroids (640x224) squashed to box 256x256 for example. The only way to bypass this right now is to manually resize such screenshots with IrfanView or similiar program. This would be nice addition but not necessary.

Vertical layout usage does not imply rotating Win desktop with external tools, neither the normal layouts are re-arranged in any way if you try to use them in vertical (i.e.: rotate_screen = 1): in that case FEEL will try to change resolution to, let's say, 480x640, which for sure is not a resolution supported by your VGA.. kaboom Instead, to use it you need first of all to set your FE layout (setting "current_layout" parameter, or using "change layout" menu option when running in test mode) to a vertical one (in the std package you got only "MAME-vertical"), then after that you'll be able to apply screen rotation and go fullscreen.You will result in keeping your Windows desktop in a standard mode (for instance 640x480) and rotating the FE only, in order to match your screen rotation (90° clockwise).Of course you'll need to set up all your emulators (e.g. mame) as well to screen rotation mode.

2)In FEEL you got 2 different snapshot (as any other image on the screen) modes: normal or stretched mode.In normal mode, FEEL will draw the snap keeping its aspect ratio intact, using the most possible space of its "place", and filling the rest with black (this only applies to snapshots: you've already noticed) (this should be the mode you're looking for).In stretched mode instead, as the word says, the image is stretched to fill the snapshot space. In this case aspect ratio, of course, is not respected.Your chosen mode can be easily set in the layout definition file (via "snapshot_stretch" parameter).

Anyway, I noticed too (maybe that's your point) that snapshots and videosnaps contained in the usual zip packages you can find on the internet are not consistent: sometimes the images are bordered in black, sometimes they're perfectly trimmed.. this can lead to some wrong visualization from one to another (for instance, some vertical games will appear very "thin" or "fat" compared to others) even using normal mode.

« Last Edit: June 25, 2015, 05:23:48 pm by dr.prodigy »

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"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing"

I managed to set vertical mode without rotating desktop but I don't see any option to switch orientation on the fly. I try to bypass this by cloning emulator configs with different orientation but looks like option screen_rotation is only allowed in feel.ini

EDIT. Or maybe it's not but FEEL only sets this once. When I change emulators with shift this option is only applied from first started emulator, switching to emulator with different orientation and different layout does not change anything :/ But again, I may doing something wrong.

At the beginning yes and it works but next step was to move this option to platform sections to see if this option during platform changes also takes effect. It does but only from platform that is started with FEEL. Switching platform does not change orientation. Anyway the fact that I can now use vertical layouts is big improvment for me

Ooooh, now I see.. you've pushed the thing forward, trying to apply different orientations according to active platform..Well, for the FEEL 4 config "golden rules" it should be theoretically possible..Actually I instead decided not to allow this, accommodating rotation setting only at startup (what I thought is: if you have a vertical screen it'll always be vertical! ). I can of course change this, if needed.Why should you need to change rotation at runtime? What's your need precisely?

« Last Edit: June 26, 2015, 07:23:34 am by dr.prodigy »

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Exactly, many people are rotating monitor when they need ie changing game from Rastan to Asuka.

Let's say I played I played Rastan for I while and I decided to browse games. After I while I chosen Asuka so I'm forced to rotate my TV, played an hour then quit and again started browsing to find next game but I still have TV rotated and till I decide what next game will be I don't know it I need still rotated TV or not so I would like to browse games normally on vertical orientation instead rotate TV to horizontal position only for browsing when I finally choose again vertical game

About mouse cursor - MAMEWAH used simple trick - during running it swaps cursor with invisible one. Maybe it can done the same way. Right now I set cursor as one dot (sometimes I need it on desktop so I cannot make it completly transparent).

@Malenko: apart from the fact that automatic rotating monitors are probably .. 10 in the world? if your setup is really effective in changing its rotation on the flight, you could simply keep the frontend horizontal and rotate it to vertical in MAME games only.

@Haynor: I understand your point.. the thing is.. given that FEEL can't know anything on how mame has arranged video for the last rom played (it depends both on rom specs and mame config), how could possibly set itself to horizontal or vertical mode accordingly?

About mouse cursor, I think I'll implement it (being sincere I've never noticed it too much before you said it!).. probably we can keep it even simpler, hiding cursor when the frontend is started, and show it when it's closed.. will investigate on how to do it, I'll let u know

« Last Edit: June 26, 2015, 03:21:32 pm by dr.prodigy »

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"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing"

Many people are using rotating setups, not too many with mechanical/ electronical devices but manually probably a lot.

MAME uses auto rotation (option autoror) so all vertical games are automatically rotated. The same goes to groovymame though option for this is different. -listxml also gives as such information - rotate="0" or rotate="270". Anyway auto switch is not needed here, I prefer switch from horizontal to vertical and vice versa manually. Right now I can but I have to quit FEEL in order to rotate takes effect so for this change I would greatly thankful

About cursor. This not a problem with mame but when I use Nestopia or VBA-M then cursor stays in center of screen for a while and since it's low resolution cursor is big, really big :/

And one thing - maybe you could present your frontend also on mameworld Since MAMEWAH will not work after MAME 162 it's really great replacement and folks there might be interested

@Malenko: apart from the fact that automatic rotating monitors are probably .. 10 in the world? if your setup is really effective in changing its rotation on the flight, you could simply keep the frontend horizontal and rotate it to vertical in MAME games only.

I don't have a rotating monitor, I was just telling you why someone would want that.

[quote author]About mouse cursor, I think I'll implement it (being sincere I've never noticed it too much before you said it!).. probably we can keep it even simpler, hiding cursor when the frontend is started, and show it when it's closed.. will investigate on how to do it, I'll let u know [/quote]

Maurizio, pay attention to this: if for some reason FEEL crashes (you know how newbies could "explore" inexepected fields...) your mouse will be hidden, making it difficult to navigate windows. I think that this should be a non default option (maybe "not hidden", "completely hidden" and "dot" could be the tree alternatives)... and it would be a really nice feature!

Anyway auto switch is not needed here, I prefer switch from horizontal to vertical and vice versa manually. Right now I can but I have to quit FEEL in order to rotate takes effect so for this change I would greatly thankful

[quote author]About mouse cursor, I think I'll implement it (being sincere I've never noticed it too much before you said it!).. probably we can keep it even simpler, hiding cursor when the frontend is started, and show it when it's closed.. will investigate on how to do it, I'll let u know

Maurizio, pay attention to this: if for some reason FEEL crashes (you know how newbies could "explore" inexepected fields...) your mouse will be hidden, making it difficult to navigate windows. I think that this should be a non default option (maybe "not hidden", "completely hidden" and "dot" could be the tree alternatives)... and it would be a really nice feature![/quote]Of course Marco, you know I always care about details .. Mouse cursor will always be reset

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"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing"

Right now I tried to log this bug on Win 7x64 but without luck and I don't have access to XP x32 for a moment (my second PC is doing right now mame benchmarks on win 7 x64) but this crash was different. Looks like crashed actually some NET component instead FEEL itself. Might be ralated only to XP and/or due to fact that I excuted also other emulators especially Taito Type X games.

Okay, let me know..What about rotation change on platform-basis?By the way, with the fix I went a little deeper than your request: you can now set rotation in all config levels, so the most easy way is to put the relevant parameter in the layout ini files, so rotation depends only on layout change (should be the most "natural" behaviour).I will soon update all the standard layouts in the package to include that parameter, so they'll be ready for the next downloaders

« Last Edit: June 30, 2015, 03:28:40 pm by dr.prodigy »

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"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing"

Well layout switching is disabled intentionally in normal mode: IMHO it would be not really useful and, let's say, "confusing".. instead you should use it to test new layouts, and/or to set which layout you want for your emulator lists (change emu -> change layout -> change emu -> change layout and so on... all these settings are saved at exit). Less precise than thru ini files editing, but easier for sure.When you're happy with your setup you move to normal mode with everything in place

Btw, it's after midnight in Italy too.. I'm going to sleep as well

« Last Edit: June 30, 2015, 06:41:14 pm by dr.prodigy »

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"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing"